


A Token of Blue

by WriterTrash56



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Heavy Angst, How Do I Tag, Hurt Lance (Voltron), I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Sorry Not Sorry, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-27 17:49:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15690348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterTrash56/pseuds/WriterTrash56
Summary: On a failed mission, Lance gets kidnapped by Lotor. Now, Keith and the rest of the team have to find him before Lotor does his worst.Gotta love me some angsty bois.





	1. Chapter 1

   It was too late. Keith saw him pull it out before Lance did. His mouth opened in an unfinished cry, a cry to warn him, before he plunged the loaded syringe into Lance’s exposed neck. 

   It was as if it was happening in slow motion, as if a movie was playing out in front of him. The fight drained out of Lance almost in an instant, his muscles relaxing and crumbling into themselves. The bayard slipped out of his grasp and clattered to the hard metal floor, then disappeared back into his suit. Lotor caught him before he could fall to the floor, and sank slowly to the ground, cradling the blue paladin in his arms in an almost loving fashion, murmuring against his skin.  

    Keith froze. He couldn't attack him now that Lance was so obviously put between them. Lotor looked up and smirked. 

    “What, you aren't going to fight me?” 

    Still smirking, Lotor started threading his fingers through Lance’s hair, looking up at Keith the whole time. Baiting him. 

     “I will,” Keith blustered. It seemed that words were incapable of leaving his mouth. He held his sword out in front of him. “Don't think that I won’t.” 

     “Oh, I don’t doubt it.” Lance started to stir slightly. Lotor shushed him, rocking him a little in his arms. Almost sweetly. Lance relaxed against his touch. White hot anger licked through Keith’s chest, and all he could do was stay frozen, stay watching. 

    “But I don't think you would try to fight me when the freedom of your teammate hangs in the balance. In an instant, I could flood the room with sentries.  The rest of your pathetic team couldn't get here in time to save you before you're overwhelmed. Either you turn the blue paladin over to me immediately, willingly, or I will not hesitate to bring you down. Do we have an understanding?” 

     “Why do you even want him!” Keith cried. “What could you possibly need him for?” Every part of his body screamed to attack, but he couldn't harm Lance, lying in Lotor’s arms, so vulnerable. 

      “That's none of your concern, Paladin. Do we have an understanding?” Lotor repeated. He was still touching Lance’s hair.

      He came to a steely ultimatum. “That's just not something I can do. Give him to me,  _ now.”  _ He snarled. Not Lance. He couldn't take Lance. He couldn't lose another teammate.

     Lotor smiled. “That's  _ just  _ what I thought you would say. Guards!” 

     He scooped up Lance, carrying him bridal style across his arms.

     “Have fun fighting.” 

    Sentries suddenly started pouring into the room. All firing at him. Keith’s body went into autopilot mode, fighting becoming his only sense. He dove for cover to a small lean in the wall, activating his shield. He curled into a ball against it, his heartbeat becoming the only thing he heard. He vaguely registered Lotor leaving the room.

     “Guys! I need backup! Lance, Lance, he’s gone! I'm pinned down by sentries!” He screamed into the headset. 

     Lunging from his cover, he went for the nearest sentry, stabbing his blade into the middle. He quickly pulled it out and advanced on another, slashing across it into sparks of electricity. He kicked the now dead body into two others, toppling them to the floor. 

      A blast slashed across his arm, puncturing through a chink in his armor. With a loud gasp, Keith dropped the arm, fighting now with only one hand. His headset was a mess of voices that didn't make any sense in his battle crazed mind. He almost didn't feel it, it didn't matter now, not when blasts were coming from all directions, when life depended on the lucky dance of dodges and steel, on a well timed sidestep and cutting of metal against metal. 

     “Keith, what do you mean Lance is gone?” 

    “We’re converging on your location! Just hold out a little longer!” 

    “We’ll be through the door in three, two, one-" 

    Suddenly new rounds filled the room, yellow and bright and slamming into sentries left and right. Keith looked over for a split second, taking in the sight of his team pouring into the room, taking out sentry after sentry. Within a matter of moments, all of the remaining ones lay on the floor, sparking and unresponsive. 

     “Keith, you’re hurt!” Pidge cried. 

     He waved her off. Adrenaline was coursing through his veins. “No matter. Lance has been captured! We need to go after him!” 

    “Where was he taken? Who took him?” Allura asked. She frantically searched the room with her eyes, as if Lance was just going to magically show up if she tried hard enough. 

    “Lotor. There’s no time to explain, we just need to get to him! Please!” 

     The team nodded. “Lead the way.” Hunk said. 

     They ran down the halls towards the hangar bay. Lance could already be gone. Lotor could have already taken him. He didn't allow himself those thoughts. There was only running, only hope. His arm hung beside him, unresponsive. It still didn't hurt.

 

      The hangar was empty. There was no sign of Lotor’s ship anywhere close to the cruiser. He was too late. Keith was too late. 

       Keith sank to the floor, shaking. It was all too much. First Shiro. Now Lance. The one boy he really…. 

      “Keith?” 

      “Is he okay? Is it his arm?” 

      “Keith! What’s wrong with him? Why is he… oh god, Keith-" 

      “Keith, buddy, you have to breathe, it's all going to be okay. C’mon buddy, it's okay. It's all going to be okay.” 

      Hunk’s face swam in front of his rapidly darkening vision. Spots danced in front of his eyes, growing bigger. 

      “H-Hunk?” Keith gasped. Then everything went dark.         


	2. Chapter 2

“Wakey wakey.”  A voice cooed. Lance's eyes blurred, head pounding with each heartbeat. Lights blared into his eyes has he tried to focus on the surroundings. Everything had a strange bluish tint to it .

“Oh, I wouldn’t try to get up anytime soon, Paladin. You’ll find you can’t, anyway.” A voice drawled. Something about it chilled him to the bone. In his delirious state, everything was odd and foreign. 

He tried to move his arms. They wouldn’t budge. His legs were the same story. He struggled against his restraints, metal digging into his skin. Panic rushed into his system and he tried to fight harder, as if that would do anything against them. He reared his head back and growled, sweating and breathing hard. 

“What did I tell you? Of course, you humans just don’t listen, do you? Always want things your way anyway. I think you’ll find that you aren’t going to get any of it, I’m afraid. Your red partner found that out rather quickly. I’d like to say he’s dead, but I’m sure he got out. They’re probably trying to find you right now, actually. But they won’t.”

Lance lurched up in his restraints, trying to see his surroundings. The memories came flooding back. Well, not many. They were trying to get that comet back. They were cornered by that stupid prince. A needle plunging into his neck. After that, darkness. 

The room he was in was posh, with big, fancy windows that were currently being covered by some sort of shutter. He was lying on a bed, obviously tied down at the wrists and ankles. His skin was rubbed raw from his struggling. A door was on the far side of the room, and  _ Lotor  _ was leaning nonchalantly against the wall beside it. He was smirking. He was always smirking, as if he knew everything and more about, well, everything. He certainly did in this regard. 

Panic wormed its way into his chest. He was trapped, with no possible way of escape in sight. And  _ Keith.  _ Lance had no idea of knowing if he was alive, or safe, or anything. And the rest of the team. Were they okay? Were they safe? He couldn’t bear the thought. 

His breath hitched in his throat. Where was he? Why did Lotor need him, of all people? He was the weakest link in the team, he was sure the whole team knew it. But why  _ him?  _ __ He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. He struggled harder against the restraints. He let out a low sob. 

In an instant, Lotor was beside him, clicking the restraints off and pulling Lance into his chest. He tried to struggle out of his grip, but Lotor held firm. A warm hand rubbed his back, and despite the fact he was being held in his kidnapper’s grip, his body involuntarily melted into the slow touch.

Humans weren’t designed to resist what felt good to them, no matter who it came from. It just wasn’t in their nature. You could inflict all the pain and torture you wanted onto them, and they would still hold firm. But to give them something their body desperately craves instead of fighting, it left them as confused and disoriented as a baby bird that hit glass. 

Lance sobbed harder against his body. He couldn’t fight it. Lotor stroked his fingers against his neck, dissolving the tension easily. His hand rubbed gentle circles around his back with the same easy steadiness until Lance was totally dissolved against his body, weakly trying to resist and failing miserably. 

“Now now,” Lotor cooed, threading his fingers through Lance's hair. “You must be so tired, so exhausted, so confused. It's perfectly reasonable to feel this way.”

He pulled Lance up by the shoulders, forcing him to look at him. His expression turned to a snarl.  

“But if you  _ ever  _ try to fight against me, if you try to escape, if you even try to contact your pathetic friends, I will kill you. Do we have an agreement?” He snarled. 

Terrified, Lance nodded. 

Lotor’s expression turned soft again, as if the previous threat had never happened. “Good.” 

“What do you want with me?” Lance whispered. 

Lotor smiled. “You're here as my guest.” 

“You kidnapped me!” 

“You're still alive out of my own good graces. Be merciful I haven't killed you yet.” 

Lotor cupped the side of Lance’s cheek and wiped the tears from his eyes. He recoiled at the touch. 

“I’ll be seeing you soon.” He said. With that, he left the room, the door closing behind him. Lance attacked the door with his fists, desperately trying to open it to no avail. He slowly sank down the side of the door, hot tears springing to his eyes.

He had never felt so alone. So helpless. He had no way to communicate. No way to get out. Unless he found a way to the hangar without being caught, he would be stuck here. Forever. 

His friends would come for him. But when? Lotor had said they wouldn't be able to find him. Was he being serious? 

Keith would find him. He repeated the mantra, over and over. They had promised to always find each other. He was sure he would never try to break that promise.  He had to be. 

He had to be. 


	3. Oh How Fun It is to Cry

Lance was gone. He had known this the moment he fell out of the pod into Hunk’s arms, he had known it before he even was aware of reality. It was a harsh truth ingrained into his bones, his soul. And none of them had any idea where he was. 

He stood on the bridge, wrapping himself with his arms, trying to fight off a chill that wouldn’t go away. Not even when he stood under the heat vents directly. Hunk had guessed that it was probably from being in the cryopod. He shivered against the non existent cold. 

Allura was standing by her controls, searching the expansive star maps. Her arms waved around like she was directing a symphony. Pidge manned her controls as well, furiously typing away at her laptop. He knew she was probably searching through the Galra records for any mention, but her search was so far turning up nothing useful. Hunk was nowhere to be seen.

Surprisingly, Keith had kept calm about all this. Freaking out and going into a panic wouldn’t make Lance magically appear in front of him. Exhaustion wouldn’t do anything to help the effort. At first the team had skirted around the topic, trying not to scare him (apparently he had gone into shock), but he was already scared. He was already terrified. Now it was just a matter of not thinking about it too much. 

“Could you scan for Lance’s suit signature?” Keith asked. 

“Tried that,” Pidge said. “We found one, yes, but when we sent Hunk  out there it was just his abandoned suit. You were in the pod.”

Keith sighed. “Have you scanned prison records?”

“No new mentions of high profile prisoners, no.” Pidge replied. “Well, not any mention of a high profile Blue Paladin. The king of Bankor was taken into custody the other day in a Galra raid though. Hm, we should probably go rescue him.” 

“Any mentions of Lotor?” Keith asked. 

“The last mention of him was from a few days ago, before the mission, so, no.”

Keith watched a little blue planet float by his nose for a moment, willing himself to stay calm. It wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t any of their faults. They didn’t want to admit it, but they knew it was Keith’s fault. He could feel it in their stares. 

Tears welled him his eyes and he pushed them down. He had done enough crying, enough for a lifetime in this war. He took a deep breath, attempting to clear his mind. 

Allura sighed and took down her star map. She turned towards him, pity radiating from her gaze. 

“Look, Keith, I know you want him back. We all do. Without him, we can’t… we can’t form Voltron--” 

“Is that all he is to you?” Keith cut in, anger rising to the surface. “Just some pawn in your war?” 

Allura was taken aback. “Keith, that isn’t fair.”

“It’s not fair!” He ranted, pacing the deck. “We lost Shiro. We’ve lost Lance! How many people are we going to lose in this fight, Allura? Pidge? Hunk? How many are we going to lose before you get it through your mind that we aren’t just some pieces in a game we didn’t sign up for!” 

“Keith, that’s not true--”

“You know it is. I can see right through you,  _ Princess,  _ and you don’t care about anyone as long as it fits your Big Picture, as long as you win! We could all die out here, and you’ll just keep finding replacements, keep finding more people to pull into your cause, until you win. And when you win, you’ll be  _ alone. _ ” 

The entire bridge was silent in shock. Even Pidge’s keyboard had gone silent. 

Allura’s voice broke. “You think I don’t care? About any of you? You must think I’m despicable.”

“Princess, it’s okay--” Allura cut Pidge off. 

“It’s not!” Tears streamed down her face. She took a huge, racking sob. “My home planet is dead! My family is gone! And I have to take the burden my parents put on me millenia ago. I have to make the decisions. I have to keep Coalition in order. I have to save the universe. And you  _ dare  _ tell me I don’t care! I don’t have a choice!” She shouted. “You think I want Shiro to be dead? You think I  _ want  _ Lance to be captured gods know where, to that horrible creature! NO! And they are, and they’re gone, and there’s nothing I can do but keep going, keep moving forward, because if I don’t, I will never get back.” 

“Allura, I--” Keith started. 

“Get away from me! Get out of the bridge! Or so help me, I will… I will…” Allura collapsed into sobs. 

Keith didn’t need to be told twice. The last thing he saw before running out of the bridge was Pidge, trying to get him before he left. But he didn’t want to be near anyone. He wanted to get away, far away, where no one could find him.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

He threw himself into training, letting himself be hurt, letting himself to not care about injury, about responsibility, about anything but the thrill of the fight, about the dance of metal and flashes of steel. 

He had progressed two levels in the short span of his training session. The bot’s attacks were harder, faster, harder to block and deflect. Keith thrilled in this. This was the one place he didn’t need to think, didn’t have to feel. If he let himself think of anything, the bot would win. And he couldn’t let himself do that. 

The bot advanced on him, backing him into a corner. Their swords clashed, and he desperately tried to hold it back. But the bot was strong at level seven, and the usual attack strategy he used wasn’t working this time. It had changed the movement entirely. It pinned him to the wall now, his sword just barely away from his face. 

He ducked, lunging under the bot’s arm and dragging his sword across its side, leaving electricity sparking in his wake. Using the moment of weakness, he plunged his sword into it’s torso, and the bot fell, sparking. 

“Level seven completed. Begin level eight?”

Keith stood, panting. He used his shirt to wipe the sweat off his brow. 

“Begin level eight--”

“End training sequence!” Hunk’s voice rang out from the doorway. He caught Keith’s eye and tried for a weak smile. In his hands he held a small bowl of food goo.

“Hunk,” Keith complained, running a hand through his sweaty hair. “I don’t need to eat.”

“You don’t need to be pushing yourself so hard, man.” Hunk fired back. He sat on the steps and patted a spot beside him, putting the bowl beside him. “It’s not healthy.”

Keith sighed and gave in. “Fine. But only for a minute.”

“Of course. We wouldn’t want to waste such-” Hunk put his fingers into quotes. “Valuable training time.”

“What are you playing at?” He asked him. “Why do you suddenly care about my well being?” He sat down beside him. He didn’t touch the food. 

“I’ve always cared about your well being.” Hunk said. 

“You know what I mean.” 

“Well, you yelled Allura into tears, first off. Pidge told me. Actually, she sent me over here.”

“Oh, so you aren’t here out of the goodness of your heart?” Keith asked. 

“Did I say that?”

Keith cracked a smile. 

“Oh, was that a smile I just saw? From the ever stoic leader?”

Keith’s expression dropped, guilt running through him. How could he smile when Lance was still out there, with Lotor? What could be happening to him? What tortures was he going through? 

Hunk noticed the sudden drop. 

“Is this about…” He trailed off. He didn’t need to finish the thought. 

Keith didn’t answer. He cast his eyes to the floor. 

“Eat.” Hunk said, pushing the bowl towards him. 

“I’m not hungry.”

“If you don’t eat I’m going to shove it down your throat.” Hunk threatened. 

Keith took the bowl. 

In the silence, Hunk spoke. 

“I know he’s out there. I know you’re scared. But you aren’t the only one here who misses him, you know?”

Keith swallowed. “I don’t need another lecture. Allura already gave me one.”

“It wasn’t so much as a lecture, was it? Just screaming?”

“You could say that.” 

“We’re all worried sick. I know you’re the one taking it the hardest. But we all know what you’re going through. We’re all hurting. It would just be… I don’t know, nice if you didn’t push us away?” Hunk said. 

“We lost Shiro. And we haven’t found him yet either. Who knows if we’ll ever find Lance when we’ve had so little luck with Shiro?”

Hunk put a hand on his back. It was warm and solid.

“Don’t lose hope just yet. We’ll find him, I promise.”

“Which one?” Keith asked, pulling out of the touch and immediately regretting it. 

“Both. I promise.” Hunk said, safe and assured. Keith envied his self assurance. How nice it would be to be so confident. Keith didn’t know if he would ever feel confident again. 

“I made a promise to him. That we would always find each other. What if I break it?” Keith asked. “What if I can’t keep that promise?”

“When you see him again, Shiro will know you kept it.” Hunk said. 

Keith leaned onto Hunk’s shoulder, closing his eyes for a long moment.

“Yeah,” he said. “Shiro.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Man, I love hurting the bois. And the princess, for that matter. Your kudos are like a bouquet of flowers. Your comments are a bouquet of flowers that don't attract bees. Thanks!

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of this is heavily inspired by The Modern Typewriter. Gotta love the angst, right?


End file.
